“Thanks.” Joanna averted her eyes and sniffed loudly.
“But,” O’Malley began as he lifted her chin, “it’s come at a price. What happened to your dad is eating you up inside. And maybe, if we can make Ostabell pay once and for all, you might get some closure.”
Joanna took a shuddering breath. “Thanks.”
“No problem.” He grinned. “You would do the same for me, right?”
“Anytime.” Joanna pulled him into a hug.
“Okay, let’s go.” Kelos edged toward the door.
“Right now?” Amber asked, not ready to let Kelos out of her sight just yet.
“We need to get this done and then get Fabian out of there before the dust settles,” Kelos told her.
“No, Fabian has to stay put,” Joanna said quickly. “If he disappears now, it’ll raise too many suspicions.”
“Joanna is right,” Amber agreed reluctantly. “And if this file is as explosive as she says then Fabian is going to be the least of Ostabell’s worries.”
“You need an alibi,” O’Malley told the detective.
“I’ll swing by the safe house with some coffee for Jarod, he’s on duty for the rest of the night and he is caffeine dependent.” She nodded and they headed toward the door.
“I’m going to tell my staff I’m talking to the dragon. I’ll tell them we don’t want to be disturbed and then we’ll go out the back door. Amber, stay here. Keep the door shut, hopefully no one will disturb you. If they do, just answer and say we’re fine or passed out drunk or something…” O’Malley turned his attention to Kelos. “If we move fast, we could be back here in an hour or less. We come in the back way and then we go through to the bar and make ourselves conspicuous.”
“Okay.” Kelos nodded. “I just need somewhere to shift and take off from.”
“I know somewhere.” O’Malley went out of the room with Joanna. “Give me the address and I’ll put it into my phone and get the directions.”
“Kelos.” Amber fought back tears as she slid her arms around his shoulders and held him close. “I wish there was more I could do.”
“Stay here and stay safe. That is all I ask.” He kissed her mouth, a long, lingering kiss filled with heat and passion.
As he let her go, Amber hoped it wasn’t their last kiss.
Chapter Twenty-One – Kelos
Leaving Amber behind at the bar was hard.
That’s an understatement, his dragon said as they dashed out of the back door of the bar behind the nimble and sure-footed O’Malley.
“She’ll be fine,” the cougar shifter called out over his shoulder as he beckoned Kelos to follow him across the street.
“Are you a mind reader now?” Kelos asked as he picked up the pace. O’Malley was not hanging around. The guy had a purpose and his attention was fixed on that purpose.
“No, but if I had a mate and I’d just left her behind, I would be worried.” He cast a look over his shoulder at the dragon shifter. “And since you are one of the last of your kind, you are probably more fixated on her safety than most normal shifters.”
“Are you saying I am not normal?” Kelos asked as they took a left and dodged down an alleyway.
“Are you saying you are normal?” O’Malley countered. He slid to a stop next to a metal flight of stairs that clung to the side of what looked like a disused warehouse. The windows were cracked, and a faint smell of ammonia drifted into the dark alleyway that was littered with trash cans and dumpster bins.
Kelos considered O’Malley’s question at the same time as he considered how safe the metal stairs were. The cougar shifter had no hesitation as he grabbed hold of the handrail and began his ascent toward the top of the building.
“No, I am not normal. But then I do not consider any shifter to be normal. We are the abnormal, something more.” He sighed, resigned to climbing the metal stairway even though parts of it were rusted out.
The cougar likes dragons, I don’t think he would have brought us here if he didn’t think it was safe, his dragon advised him.
Kelos placed his right foot on the first step and then wrapped his fingers around the handrail and pulled himself up, taking the steps two at a time. The less time he spent on the stairs, the better. O’Malley seemed to have the same idea and sprinted up the steps, the whole structure shook under the weight of the two men.
Reaching the top of the stairs led them out onto a flat roof that was a floor or more higher than the surrounding buildings. It was a good spot to launch from. Not ideal, but unless they wanted to trek back across the city to the park where the dragon had landed earlier, it would have to do.
“There’s little in the way of streetlights in this area.” O’Malley swung his arm out and turned around in a circle. “I don’t know how far you have to fly horizontally to get good height, but I hope this will be enough.”
“I can take off almost vertically,” Kelos informed the cougar shifter as he walked the perimeter of the roof and checked the buildings on either side. “This will do just fine.”
“Great.” O’Malley looked a little nervous for the first time since they met. The idea of riding on the back of a dragon was probably much more exciting when it wasn’t imminent. Especially as O’Malley didn’t have a clue as to what the dragon looked like and how he behaved.
“I’ll try not to bite your head off,” Kelos murmured as he turned around and faced the cougar shifter.
“I’d appreciate that.” O’Malley grinned. “I remember reading fairy tales about dragons and my mom used to tell me that she’d met a dragon for real and I never believed her. Not entirely.”
“You’ll believe her now.” With that, Kelos let go of the world around
